The news of Yana Lin trapping you in the restroom was circulating through the entire campus, with very little truth to it. Eventually, you knew the real truth would come out. But as of now, the student body was content to use their imagination to fill the rest of the gaps of what they did not know.
It would have been easy to ignore it entirely if not for the few shameless ones wanting to know and believing themselves entitled to the truth as if it was a matter that were connected to their mundane lives.
As the usual sanctuary of yours, you hid inside the Library, and was left alone by Hazel wanting to watch the soccer team's practice for tommorow's game. Violet is spending another detention with Elody this time, having been participating in a catfight together at their P.E subject.
You were actually in peace at first, knowing the librarian had such a bitter outlook to any noisy people that no one would think in pressuring you to answer their pointless inquiries that you didn't want to. It all seemed distracting to prepare for the exams due in Wednesday to Friday without your mind further delving into your inner turmoil because you had more things to be worried about.
Such as reviewing the new formulas of x's and y's at Math, but your hard won and extremely rare peace was all too quickly shattered when you found yourself being surrounded by the loudest trio you've ever known. Your brother is the leader, Jungwon is the follower and Sunoo is their cheerleader. The three of them takes the vacant seats with Sunoo ending up next to you and it was a move that was too purposeful to have been a coincidence.
Still, you were too focus on your reviewer, even as they saw fit to begin a conversation about what they had during the whole day.
With your head lowered to your paper, you struggled not to roll your eyes when Daniel, the giant clown of your life, began to regale the two idiots of how he was the one to stop Elody from scratching Hazel on the face. He spoke with overly exaggerated words, as though he was from one of those Marvel movies that he loved.
When he finally brought his immature fairytale to a close, with him somehow being the one to stop Hazel from fighting back, you struggled not to scoff. Daniel, always the one to sense when you were judging him, did not fail to hear it.
"Noona?", he asked, with all the means of being offended at you with a sniff. Lifting your head, you met his waiting eyes wih silent frustration about him. "Do you have a problem with that?"
You gave him an annoyed look. "You are so proud for having been fooled them", you said steadily, casting a glance towards Sunoo and Jungwon who understand who is the foolish ones. "You both know my brother is as genius as a baby monkey and yet you still congratulated him as if what he was saying isn't a rubbish"
"Well", Daniel said, not appreciating your praise about him. "Would you have been able to do the same for your bestfriend?"
You laughed. "Oh, no, I bet you wouldn't do the same for me", you spread out your arms as though about to make an important announcement. Taking a deep breath before exploding to him, "It's your fault that I encounter Yana, so please leave me for now"
Abruptly ending the conversation at that, you returned once more to your abandon paper. The formulas, one you couldn't begin to understand even if you had already studied it for a long while and now you have the urge to call Jake for help. You were beginning to contemplate it when you happened to hear two words from Jungwon, firm and leaving no room for disagreement.
"Let's leave", It was he who grabbed Daniel to stand up instantly, making you look away from the paper and to him.
For a shortest of moments, you thought Sunoo would be following the two of them and just as he was about, Jungwon gestured for him to stay. Daniel was muttering under his breath as he quickly gathers their things upon receiving the order of his bestfriend - because it was clearly an order and they both left the table.
Casting a glance around this part of the library, you realized you were completely alone with Sunoo and he took the opportunity to slide into the chair directly across you.
He made no effort to made it seem like he was working. He tilted his head, considering you closely. "How are you doing, Y/N?", he asked. "Are you okay from the encounter with Yana?"
You smiled, but it fell away again almost immediately. "It's nice for you to ask, but I'm just really doing my best to forget it all"
"That's an unhealthy way of coping with it", Sunoo said and then, to your surprise, he reached out and touched the side of his face. You felt the heat of his hand on your skin, impossibly soft, but before you could react, he pulled away again, looking embarrassed.
"I know it's not a good advice, but Heeseung is too big of a risk to take for you to continue being with him", he paused and looked out for anyone who might hear. "And if I am right, it can't be the best to pursue any boy, either"
You lowered your eyes, being touched by his reminder. "I know", you said and looked up to him sadly. "But I have my reasons to stay with him, and I can't take it back until it's done"
There was that smile again, slight and almost sweet, playing at the corner of his lips. "It's okay. You don' have to tell me what is it. I can wait for an explanation later", Sunoo concluded.
"Thank you", you said, knowing he could hear the ring of truth in your words.
If Sunoo cared to study you, he would find no sign of deception other than you being grateful to him, to gain him as a friend. Instead of looking away, he continued to watch you and to your uttermost surprise, he looked at you as if you were the most intriguing puzzle that had ever been presented to him. In the end, you were the one to draw back from that kind of stare, hiding yourself behind the protection of your book.
But already, your eyelids felt heavy as he starts to hum quietly while still staring at you. For a short time, he feels like the past of your first meeting with him, inside the tent with him sleeping back to back. You blinked a few times, thinking of the hours ahead of you in this table that felt like an island, small enough for only the two of you, but large enough to keep the rest of the world at bay.
When you yawned from the lack of sleep, he gave you a little nudge against your knee, so that your eyes flickered again. "Just sleep and I'll keep an eye on you", he murmured, and just like that, your face slumped against the surface of the table.
Left alone with his satisfied smile, Sunoo moved a hand to reach out for your hair hiding your face and gently moved it to the nape of your neck. He shook his head sharply, beating back the memories of his biggest regret that threatened to overwhelmed him and he ignored the beating of his heart.
"You're so vulnerable just like me", he was saying, his voice was softer, far softer than he'd ever use to someone, but you didn't hear it. "They said the happiest ones was also tha loneliest ones behind. It's me, Y/N"
And Sunoo was surprised to find himself thinking back to the time when everything was so simple, the one with all the miracles of letting him meet you. He could only hope that in a world with so many wonders, it would have still been possible for him to get your attention as someone he sees as something remarkable and you're not ordinary as they'd like you to be.
Suddenly, you looked up from your nap with an expression on your face that suggested you had heard everything. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but why do you feel lonely, Sunoo?"
He turned to look at you, feeling your eyes burn to the side of his face. You held your eyes - just long enough for him to finally open up. "I know I am famous at Tiktok and everybody is saying they liked me for me, but because of my feminity sometimes, I was avoided by some boys"
"But you know who you are, Kim Sunoo", you told him, reaching out a hand, resting it on top of his hand to make him relax. "The ones who only deserves you is the ones who will accept you the way you are. Could I be that person too?"
Left wordless and a little overhelmed, Sunoo offered you a faint smile as he squeeze your hand. For now any thoughts of Yana and his insecurites about himself fades away.
For it to stay, he just needed to remain there, right there by your side.
Parting from him that day, you didn't expected to be grabbed by to face his chest. With his hand placing a letter in yours, his lips met your hairline and you felt more than heard him murmur the words, "I love you with all my heart"
You pulled away shakily from him, unwilling to admit the words had manage to rattle your whole body, but as light as his body is, he placed a greedy hands over both side of your cheeks as he gave you yet another unexpected open-mouthed kiss.
It all worked too easily for his favor.
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The day before the first set of the exams, after recovering from Sunoo's kiss and had another studying night, making you unable to have time to read his letter, you go to your first ever soccer game. You've never had even the tiniest bit of interest in it before, and you still don't. Sport, the way you see it, is another form of torture, but why did everybody still like it? You'll never understand them like Jake.
Hazel and Violet wasn't the type into forcing you to attending it, but there you were sitting in the stands because your brother forcibly brings you there and he proved himself being shameless at getting a ride personally from Jay who was now doing his best not to melt under Jungwon's stare, it's like the boy you liked was more than interested to him than you are at the moment.
You can never blame him, though, for Jay looked cool in his outfit that he says was inspired from Ok Taecyeong in Vincenzo.
Down below, Yana is cheering with the rest of the cheerleader squad. She is shimmying and shaking her pom-poms. She looks up in the stands just in time to see you being approached by Heeseung and when she sees him giving you an ice cream, she stops for just a half second before launching into a new cheer, eyes blazing at everyone who dared to comment on the deep frown in her face.
Finding the game was just still starting with the Principal announcing the arrival of the other school's team, you picked out your phone and ignored what was Heeseung and Jay is talking about as long as you can read the kindle version of People Look Like Flower At Last by Charles Bukowski.
You were beginning to smile at the poet's sarcasm when a hand splayed across the screen of your phone to block the words from your view and it was Hazel who stared down at you in disbelief. You raised an eyebrow before looking down at her hand, silently asking her to remove it.
She let out an exasperated sigh. "Are you for real? Everyone is here for the game, and you're here reading your bible?", she said in a sarcastine tone then held it out from your reach and to your shock, she passed it to Daniel who was more than happy to receive it in his hand.
Thankfully, you have a password on it now. Though, you still give Hazel a look. "What do you think you're doing?", you asked as she shared an eye roll with your brother. Instantly, you were tempted to comment on it.
But before you could even open your mouth, Hazel was already showing a text from the soccer player. "Jake is asking you to wish him luck. He said he's waiting for you before their changing room"
"So what about it?", you were saying and there was Jungwon and Jay who was smiling as it looks you'll not obey the boy from Australia's wish.
Unfortunately for you, Hazel Duran wasn't the type to give up just like that. She'd been the one to convinced you should choose Jake out of the seven. If anything, this girl was as stubborn as your brother to throw you in so much trouble. But even if you knew you would never agree to see Jake, it could never happened, not when he had a girl like Hazel that only needed to annoy you in order to guilt trip you into going.
"It's not like Heeseung will be angry if we burrow his girlfriend for a second, right?", she kept on repeating it, you swear, you could see Daniel staring at her more in admiration.
"Fine, let's go and be done with it", is your responds before your own brother was pushing you out of the stands in order to get your seat next to Hazel.
By the time the two of you were running down the steps of the bleachers, you're thankful you wore rubber shoes and through the number of people getting out of theirs from the parking lot. Racing across the field you headed for the changing's room because you have no other choice to. You slowed down slightly, feeling a stitch forming in your side from all the running that you think was the most you had done for this month.
Hazel glanced back at you over her shoulder before catching your hand to pull you alongside her, forcing you to run even faster. At last, almost near to your last breath, she led you to where Jake's teams was waiting outside the changing room's door.
You'd always thought it was possible to control your life, but it seemed that it wasn't. To every boys who received letters, there was no way you would ever get away from any of them and so you hadn't.
It just a matter of patience not to roll your eyes when you heard Jake's voice, "We're not playing until she comes her-"
"She's here!", Hazel cut in, stopping his speech midway. You pulled your hand away from hers as you braced your hands on your knees and you wheezed, trying to catch your breath.
If only there was something that the boys could manage to kill you with, it's not their kisses or even such affections but their demands like this.
When shoes appeared in your field of vision, you peered up to see Jake and threw him a glare. "You really need to get some exercise and more vitamins", he says it like it was all too easy for you.
"Why in hell do you have to kill me in this way?", you asked once you regained your breath and rose back to your full height, putting both of your hands in the side of your waist.
"This is my first game in this school, it will give me such a thrill if you're here to support me", Jake beamed with confidence, and he fondly watched the way you just tried to stare him down. "If you don't want it words, maybe we could change it to a kiss?"
Your cheeks flushed a light shade of pink as his teammates began to cheer him behind. "Good luck to your game, Jake", you said shortly. With that, you turn on your heel and headed back to the chaos of the bleachers.
As it turns out, Jake was the most valuable player the school soccer team had this year. The match against the other school was progressing smoothly for his team and as a result, he was starting to show off as Jake sometimes stopped to blow you a kiss between breaks. With the whole school watching, it was easy to see from your seat how another rumor about you would go out after this game.
Niki who was in the front row of the stands can't hold himself. "Stop showing off! You're raining down saliva this way because of that!", he shouted up when Jake passed by his seat. The older boy only laughed at him, his complete attention off of the game. "What if we all got germs from you and you'll be the cause of the pandemic in this school?"
No one even bothered trying to strike up a conversation with Sunghoon even though the girls near his perch on the wall want to: it wasn't worth the effort. He's just there, crossing his arms as he watched the whole interaction between you and his getting bolder than usual bestfriend.
Because of Niki spitting threats from his seat, ignoring the reminders of Taki and K to calm himself - one of the player came rapidly to Jake who was distracted from the japanese boy and you glanced back at Jay from your seat, signalling for him to call for Jake to notice it. You know, Jay is the loudest out of all the boys you liked once.
"Jake - look out-", his words were cut off quickly as the opposing player hit Jake in the middle of his back, flinging him forward and out the white line of the field.
There was a sudden surge in horrified screams as Jake landed on the pavement with a painful thud and for once, every single student who attended the game was forming into one as they called out the other team for cheating - perhaps thinking clocking out Jake from the game can earn them the sure win. While the game is now put at a pause with the referee shrilling with his whistle, you pushe people out of the way as you headed out of the stand.
With a slight discomfort to your realization, you needed to get down to see Jake and make sure that he was alright, that he was still fine to continue the game at least. By the time you had reached him with his team crowding around him along Sunghoon.
As soon as he saw you, he turn to the players to make a way for you to reach Jake. "Move", he ordered too firmly.
The whole team moved away quickly and it was easy then to knelt down beside Jake whe closes his eyes from the growing sore. You turn to brush some of the hair from his forehead and began to look over for any visible signs of injury. There were none, but it wasn't as if Jake would remained unharmed when he was wincing so much after that unprecedented fall.
Seeing this, Sunghoon was annoyed to see Jake's teammate only standing around you. "What are you all standing for?", he says quite loudly for every one of them to hear as you settled Jake's head on your lap. Why wasn't he moving? "Hurry up and get the nurse from the clinic!"
While you waited for the nurse to come get Jake, you began to look around the surroundings. The students were now beginning to leave after the Principal announced the other team is disqualified from breaking the rules and the only ones who stayed is your own group. Jay stands from their seat with Jungwon and Daniel looking down at the soccer player in your lap with curiousity.
Once the whole soccer field is deserted, Niki emerged with Taki and he met your eyes before looking away to approach Sunghoon. Maybe to offer apology for distracting Jake in the first place, and your guess was proven corret as soon as the ice skater nodded solemnly at their echange of words. Circling back to the direction of the teachers is Heeseung who seems to be needed to help the Coach in stating the foul play of the opposing team.
After a few awkward silence, the boy in your lap moved an inch. "I know you cared about me for real", croaked a voice. You glanced down and let out a brief of relief to see Jake open his eyes.
"What the hell is wrong with you making me worry over you?", you tried to demand, but even you could hear the relief in your voice. "Why did you have to show off just to get my attention when I'm already always noticing you? Do you realize how dangerous if you happen to hit your head instead?", you bit your bottom lip to stop it from quivering and he was just watching.
"What if you got hurt or something or - or worse"
Almost instantly once he recovered from his shock over your very caring words for him, Jake slipped his arms around your shoulders and pulled you into an embrace. "I had no idea that the girl I'm close to loving cared this much about me", his voice is quiet as his hands rubbed up and down your back.
You fought to keep down your sobs then started questioning yourself this instant: how was it even possible? He was the one that just had a painful fall and yet he was the one that was comforting you.
"Of course I care. Even if I might hate the way you kiss me sometimes, I still care", you said as you shoved at his chest for him to release you, seeing that Heeseung and their coach was making their way towards you along Sunghoon and Niki. Even Jay with Jungwon is present at the side.
Jake only pulled away from you a bit, his eyes softening slightly once he'd caught sight of the unshead tears of your eyes. "I'm sorry, but may I?"
Before you could ask him what he was asking for, he placed his lips over yours in a small kiss. It wasn't like the other times, though, and he pulled away too quickly before he set his forehead against yours. You watched him closely as he kept his eyes closed, ingraining every moment of it in his mind.
Your moment with him was broken apart by the commotion of nurse heading to you, flanked by the whole team and they had helped Jake to lay down in the stretcher they brought.
The silence that followed their exit was deafening along the quickening of your heart beating and it was clearly maddening.
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How's your heart doing, my lovely readers from this chapter? So many things had happened along two kisses from two guys, eh. Do you love that? Tell me.😉
As for Sunoo's letter, I will be making the part 2 of this chapter for it. I can't enter it at 39 and 40 because well, it's for the other boy's center moment.
Don't forget to Comment & Vote!